The 6th Joint JALT Tokyo Conference will be held at Temple University, Tokyo, Japan on December 9th, 2012. Here is the flyer for the event.

1.
6th
Joint
JALT
Tokyo
Conference
2012
'Learning
a
language:
No
single
best
method.'
Time:
9:30am
–
5:00pm
Date:
Sunday
December
9th
2012
Venue:
Azabu
Hall,
Temple
University
Japan,
2-­‐8-­‐12
Minami
Azabu,
Minato-­‐ku,
Tokyo
106-­‐0047
Directions:
https://www.tuj.ac.jp/maps/tokyo.html
Cost:
JALT
members,
Temple
faculty
&
Temple
students
-­‐
Free!
Non-­‐members
-­‐
1,000
yen
A
full
day
of
presentations
and
poster
sessions
returns
this
year
after
a
hiatus
in
2011.
The
Joint
Tokyo
JALT
Conference
is
co-­‐sponsored
by
JALT
Tokyo
and
West
Tokyo
Chapters
along
with
Abax,
Cengage
Learning,
Cambridge
University
Press,
englishbooks.jp,
McGraw-­‐Hill
Education,
Macmillan
LanguageHouse,
and
the
Graduate
College
of
Education,
Temple
University,
Japan
Campus.
This
year's
event
features
keynote
presentations
by
Andy
Curtis
of
Anaheim
University's
Graduate
School
of
Education
and
by
Shinichi
Izumi
of
Sophia
University.
Prof.
Curtis
will
be
presenting
from
10:00-­‐11:00
on
'The
Origins
of
the
Best
Method
Movement:
Past,
Present
and
Future,'
and
Prof.
Izumi
will
be
presenting
from
15:45-­‐16:45
on
'Beliefs
about
Language
Learning,
Learning
Strategies,
and
Confidence
of
EFL
Learners:
Issues
in
Instructional
Counterbalancing.'
In
addition
to
these
two
keynotes,
the
conference
involves
two
sessions
of
poster
presentations
11:15-­‐12:45
and
from
14:00-­‐15:30
where
participants
are
encouraged
to
walk
around
and
discuss
the
different
issues
being
presented.
We
hope
to
see
you
there!

2.
Plenary
#1:
10:00-­‐11:00am
The
Origins
of
the
“Best
Method
Movement”:
Past,
Present
and
Future.
These
days,
few
would
argue
that
there
is
just
one
best
method
for
learning
a
language.
However,
75
years
ago,
in
October
1937,
The
Modern
Language
Journal
published
an
article
entitled
“Lecture
on
the
best
methods
of
teaching
the
living
languages”,
given
by
Professor
George
Ticknor,
then
at
Harvard
University.
Ticknor’s
talk
had
been
given
more
than
100
years
previously,
on
24
August
1832
–
nearly
two
centuries
ago.
This
may,
then,
be
one
of
the
few
times
that
the
origin
of
a
long-­‐prevailing
idea
in
language
education
can
be
precisely
pinpointed.
According
to
Ticknor:
“The
easiest
and
best
method,
therefore,
for
persons
of
all
ages
and
all
classes
to
learn
a
living
language
is
undoubtedly
to
learn
it
as
a
spoken
one”
(1937,
p.19).
In
Ticknor’s
talk,
we
can
also
see
the
origin
of
what
we
now
refer
to
as
the
Native-­‐Speaker
Myth,
in
which
native-­‐speakers
of
the
target
language
were
(or
still
are)
assumed
to
be
the
best
teachers
of
the
language:
“Persons,
then,
who
have
the
opportunity,
should
learn
the
living
language
they
wish
to
possess,
as
it
is
learnt
by
those
to
whom
it
is
native”
(1937,
p.19).
In
this
plenary,
we
will
look
at
the
“best
method
movement”:
where
we
are
now,
where
we
have
been
and
where
we
are
going.
Bio-­‐information
Professor
Andy
Curtis
is
an
independent
consultant
for
international
education,
based
in
Ontario,
Canada.
He
is
currently
teaching
in
the
Graduate
School
of
Education
at
Anaheim
University,
California,
USA,
and
in
the
Department
of
Languages
and
Cultures
at
Sabana
University,
in
Bogota,
Colombia.
He
received
his
MA
in
Applied
Linguistics
and
Language
Education,
and
his
PhD
in
International
Education,
from
the
University
of
York
in
England.
Until
recently,
he
was
the
Director
of
the
English
Language
Teaching
Unit
at
The
Chinese
University
of
Hong
Kong,
and
he
has
also
taught
at
the
School
for
International
Training
in
Vermont,
USA.
Plenary
#2:
15:45-­‐16:45pm
Beliefs
about
Language
Learning,
Learning
Strategies,
and
Confidence
of
EFL
Learners:
Issues
in
Instructional
Counterbalancing.
What
ideas
do
second
language
(L2)
learners
have
about
the
nature
of
language
learning?
How
did
they
come
to
have
those
ideas?
These
questions
have
attracted
interest
of
language
teachers
and
Second
Language
Acquisition
researchers
because
learners’
ideas
or
philosophies
about
L2
learning
potentially
exert
strong
influence
on
both
the
process
and
product
of
L2
learning.
It
is
generally
believed
that
learners’
beliefs
constitute
a
variable
that
accounts
for
individual
differences
in
L2
learning
and
thus
are
viewed
as
an
important
construct
to
be
investigated
in
relation
to
their
subsequent
impact
on
learners’
behaviors.
In
this
talk,
I
am
going
to
talk
about
my
recent
study
that
investigated
how
learners’
previous
learning
backgrounds
influence
their
beliefs
about
L2-­‐learning
approaches,
their
uses
of
learning
strategies,
and
their
self-­‐efficacy
and
confidence
in
their
L2
abilities.
I
will
discuss
the
implications
of
the
results
for
language
learning
and
teaching.
Bio-­‐information
Professor
Shinichi
Izumi
is
a
professor
at
Sophia
University,
Tokyo,
Japan,
where
he
teaches
in
the
BA
program
in
English
Language
Studies
and
the
MA
and
the
PhD
programs
in
Applied
Linguistics
and
TESOL.
He
received
his
MA
in
Applied
Linguistics
from
Southern
Illinois
University
at
Carbondale
and
his
PhD
in
Applied
Linguistics
from
Georgetown
University.
He
has
been
involved
in
EFL
teacher
education
throughout
Japan
and
has
published
widely
both
nationally
and
internationally
in
areas
related
to
instructed
second/foreign
language
acquisition,
in
particular
on
topics
related
to
CBI
(Content-­‐based
Instruction),
TBI
(Task-­‐based
Instruction),
Focus
on
form,
and
CLIL
(Content-­‐and-­‐Language-­‐Integrated-­‐Learning).